Friday, September 26, 2008

#837 I Shot The Sheriff, Japan's New PM: Aso Taro


Show 837 Friday 26 September
Watch today’s show at YouTube or BlipTV.


Hi, I’m Sarah, welcome to The Daily English Show.

Today we’re going to study a song by Bob Marley called I Shot the Sheriff.
I like this song and I think there is something useful that you can learn from it.
The chorus goes: I shot the sheriff but I didn’t shoot no deputy.
That use of no is a kind of non-standard grammar – it means: the.
I shot the sheriff but I didn’t shoot the deputy.

Hopefully you’ll never need to say this, because shooting a police officer isn’t such a good idea. Actually shooting anyone for that matter.

But you can use this structure to say other things.

I did X but I didn’t do Y.

Shoot is an irregular verb, so the past tense isn’t shooted, it’s shot.

I shot the sheriff but I didn’t shoot the deputy.

I quite often see people make mistakes like: I shot the sheriff but I didn’t shot the deputy.

Like, what happened was in the past, so they want to put all the verbs in the past. But the verb do is in the past tense, so this verb doesn’t also need to be in the past.

So let’s stop shooting the police. And … what else can we do?

Here are some examples:

I went to the bank but I didn’t go to the post office.
I called Kate but I didn’t call Mike.
I saw the highlights on the news but I didn’t see the actual game.
I gave her the house keys but I didn’t give her the car keys.
I ate the carrot but I didn’t eat the broccoli.



STICK NEWS


Kia Ora in Stick News today Japan has a new prime minister.

Aso Taro was born in Fukuoka in 1940. He first went to university in Tokyo. Then went to the US to study at Stanford University. Apparently he was cut off by his family, who feared he was becoming too Americanized. Later on he studied in the UK at the London School of Economics.
After university, Aso spent two years mining for diamonds in Africa. Then he started working for his Dad’s mining company in 1966. He became president of the company in 1973.
Three years later, he went to the Montreal Olympics as a member of the Japanese shooting team.
Aso’s political career started in 1979 when he was elected as a member of the House of Representatives. He has since been re-elected eight times. On Wednesday, he became the 92nd prime minister of Japan.
Taro wasn’t the first politician in the Aso family. His mum was a prime minister's daughter. His dad was a close associate of a prime minister. His wife’s dad was also a prime minister. His younger sister is the wife of a prince who is a first cousin of the Emperor. And Aso Taro is also the great-great-grandson of one of the founders of modern Japan.
Aso is famous for being a manga fan and for saying stupid things like: burakumin can't become prime minister.

And that was Stick News for Friday the 26th of September.
Kia Ora.




Word of the Day


Today’s word is swear.

Bob admits that he shot the sheriff, but he says: I swear it was in self-defence.

Swear is a verb which means: to promise that you are telling the truth.

For example … let’s say there was a piece of chocolate cake in the fridge and it mysteriously disappears. And your flatmate says: Who ate my piece of chocolate cake?

You can say: Wasn’t me!

And then if they look at you like they don’t believe you. You can continue, like this:
I swear it wasn’t me. I didn’t even know it was there. Chocolate cake? What chocolate cake?



friday joke


Police officers lined up a group of robbery suspects. They asked each man in the line-up to repeat the words: Give me all your money or I’ll shoot. One of the men couldn’t control himself and shouted: That’s not what I said!



conversations with sarah
#517 What are they called?

Step 1: Repeat Masa’s lines.
Step 2: Read Masa’s lines and talk to Sarah.

Masa What’s the difference between a police officer and a sheriff?

Sarah Same thing, I think. I don’t know, we don’t have sheriffs in New Zealand.

Masa There are no police in New Zealand?

Sarah No, no, there are police in New Zealand, they’re just not called sheriffs.

Masa What are they called?

Sarah Police officers. Or cops, that’s what they’re called informally … among other things …



links

today's STICK NEWS pictures

sheriff at Wikipedia

music

show start
artist: Boom Tschak
album: Indietronic CCBit.
track: More Chocolate, Please
from: Former Yugoslavia
MySpace

WOD start
artist: DJ iPep's
album: Home Mix 2007
track: Game Toy
from: EVREUX, France
album at Jamendo
artist at Jamendo
artist site

friday joke start
artist: AdHoc
album: Toutes directions
track: Sumbala
from: Annecy, France
album at Jamendo
artist at Jamendo
artist site

cws start
artist: Wolfgang S.
album: Indietronic CCBit.
track: Dynamite
from: Belgrade, Serbia, Former Yugoslavia
artist site
MySpace

qa start
artist: ioeo
album: triptracks
track: triptrack2
from: Saint Raphael, France
album at Jamendo
artist at Jamendo
artist site

qa bgm
artist: Ensono
album: Night Culture
track: Anyway
from: Vigo, Spain
album at Jamendo
artist at Jamendo

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